With move in place to Big Ten, Rutgers has eye on Big East

Freshman Darius Hamilton, who starred at Don Bosco before choosing Rutgers said, "Jersey needs something to believe in in college football.’’

PISCATAWAY — The sanctuary of the practice field has taken on a new meaning for Rutgers’ football team.

As Rutgers Nation celebrates the school’s admission into the Big Ten Conference, the football players toil in practice far from the maddening crowds. Far from the spotlight of television.

It’s as if they have tunnel vision and their newest form of equipment is blinders. Ask them about the possibility of playing in the Big Ten, starting as soon as 2014, rather than the Big East, and from the head coach down to the last player, they dodge the questions with the skills of a world-class jaywalker avoiding traffic in the middle of Times Square.

"We go about our business," coach Kyle Flood said Tuesday, two hours before the news conference that made the jump to the Big Ten official. "We have a very important football game [Saturday at Pittsburgh], and that’s where our focus is."

After Pittsburgh, the Scarlet Knights host Louisville on Nov. 29 in what could be a winner-takes-all game for the Big East Conference title. Going into this weekend, Rutgers, which has never won a Big East championship since joining the conference in 1991, is the only team undefeated in conference play. Louisville has one defeat. If that holds up after Rutgers-Pitt and Connecticut-Louisville, the winner of the last regular-season game is the Big East champ and earns a BCS ticket to the Orange Bowl.

"At the end of the day, we’re not going to win a Big Ten title this year, we’re going to win the Big East championship," said star linebacker Khaseem Greene. "That’s all we care about."

That and sending the message that football in New Jersey has improved considerably since the Scarlet Knights were 1-11 in 2002, the second year of former coach Greg Schiano’s rebuilding program.

"I believe in the program," said freshman defensive tackle Darius Hamilton, the former Don Bosco star from Woodland Park, who had plenty of Big Ten offers before choosing his state university. "If I could go back and do it again, I would do the same thing. Jersey needs something to believe in in college football."

As soon as the season after next, presuming Rutgers can negotiate its way out of the 27-month notice it’s supposed to give the Big East, New Jersey will have something new to believe in: Rutgers in the Big Ten.

"Rutgers University won today," athletic director Tim Pernetti, an RU grad and former football player, said at the news conference. "I don’t see it as just the athletic department winning today. It’s a transformative day for Rutgers University."

For a lot of reasons. Rutgers feels it’s a better fit academically with the other Big Ten schools, instead of a Big East that’s constantly adding and subtracting. "The Big Ten is really where Rutgers belongs," said university president Robert Barchi. "It’s a respected brand."

Then there’s the matter of added revenue — no small consideration. The Big Ten will be a windfall for Maryland and Rutgers, the newest additions in what will soon be a 14-team conference. After receiving $6 million a year from the Big East television revenues, Rutgers, although not immediately, will be entitled to about $24 million from the lucrative Big Ten Network, which conference commissioner Jim Delany estimates reaches 92 million homes, and other networks. Plus SI.com is estimating the payout could balloon to $43 million in 2017, when the league’s TV contract is renegotiated.

More money in the coffers means Barchi and Pernetti can continue to reduce the university’s subsidies to the athletic program, estimated at more than $20 million, by $1 million a year.

The added revenue could also help Pernetti in his hope to renovate the Rutgers Athletic Center, home for men’s and women’s basketball and wrestling ("that’s got to get done quickly," said Pernetti).

More money could be produced by playing football games at MetLife Stadium or Yankee Stadium. Even though Rutgers invested $102 million to renovate its on-campus stadium and Pernetti insists switching games to the pro stadiums was not a requirement for Big Ten membership, he does not rule out playing marquee games, such as Penn State and Ohio State, at the bigger stadiums when the Scarlet Knights switch conferences.

The last voice in the merits of joining the Big Ten is C. Vivian Stringer, RU’s Hall of Fame women’s basketball coach. She coached Iowa before coming to Rutgers and has a son who works there.

"We’re in a good spot," said Stringer. "Rutgers is in a win-win situation. When I was there [at Iowa], the Ohio State football team won [the national championship] and all the schools shared in the revenues. It was one big family. It was amazing."